Corfu Channel incident — 1946–48 altercations between the United Kingdom and Albania
The Corfu Channel incidents produced the first International Court of Justice judgment, establishing state responsibility for hazardous conditions in territorial waters.
Key Facts
- Number of separate incidents
- 3
- ICJ award to United Kingdom
- £844,000 (≈£25.8 million in 2015 terms)
- Diplomatic relations broken
- 1946
- Diplomatic relations restored
- 1991
- Court
- International Court of Justice
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
In 1946, Royal Navy warships navigated the Corfu Channel, a strait partly within Albanian territorial waters. Albania, newly under communist rule and hostile to Western naval presence, had laid mines and maintained armed fortifications along the channel, creating hazardous conditions for passing vessels.
Three separate incidents occurred: Albanian fortifications opened fire on Royal Navy ships in the first; mines struck and damaged British warships in the second; and in the third, the Royal Navy conducted mine-clearing operations in Albanian territorial waters, prompting Albania to file a complaint with the United Nations.
Britain broke off diplomatic talks with Albania in 1946, and relations were not restored until 1991. The United Kingdom brought the matter before the International Court of Justice, which ruled against Albania and ordered it to pay £844,000 in compensation, marking the ICJ's first substantive judgment.